The Darkness Over Nijmauwrgen #4

Resistance! (played 18/03/2024)

System: The Black Sword Hack
Adventure: The Darkness Over Nijmauwrgen (from The Chaos Crier issue #0)
Players: Faaya (Capingreen), Kvam (Janitor911)
GM: Me (Feirsteax)
Session length: 2h30m ish

Sarakasas the Penitent from The Chaos Crier zine issue #0

Sarakasas

The temple of the Black Sun sparkled in the ocean spray. Once the city’s proud lighthouse, it had been long ago annexed by the cult and filled with their bizarre instruments of worship.

Shivering, Dosteyoz hunched her cape about her shoulders and descended the dark depths of the temple. The throne room was bare and expansive. At its centre stood a massive, horrible statue. It depicted a four-armed cyclopean figure with bulging eyes and a protruding, tentacular tongue.

Sarakasas’s withered frame was almost entirely enveloped by the sprawl of his Coral Throne. His eyes glazed over with a milky dew as his lips murmured wordless incantations known only to himself. Dosteyoz knew little of the nature of the archpriest’s strange rituals, but wondered if he was losing his mind. Lately, he had been spending more and more time in this trance-like communion and seldom set foot outside the temple.

“What of Alcantor?” Sarakasas’s words startled her. Though he looked as distant and entranced as ever, his voice boomed. His words echoed through the chamber like crashing waves.

“Soon, master. Two of his accomplices, Faaya and Kvam, have yielded to the will of the Black Sun.” Dosteyoz replied nervously.

 “They will betray you.” Sarakasas’s voice reverberated in her skull.

“I… I don’t understand.” She stammered, confused. Suddenly, foamy waves lapped at her feet and two egglike slimes oozed out from beneath the throne and squirmed over to her. Confused, she looked to Sarakasas, but he spoke no more. His head lolled to one side and his jaw hung slack, drooling. He was entirely lost to his trance.

Emerging onto the bright streets of Nijmauwrgen, Dosteyoz squinted in the sudden sunlight. She held up one of the strange black slimes and studied it closely. In the swirling darkness of the orb, something inside seemed to stare back.

Report

Faaya and Kvam stood in the rainy streets, three dead templars before them. They hurriedly removed the Templars’ tunics to use as disguises later, then began dumping the bodies into the sewers below.

This awful deed done, they hurried over to Julovern’s shack to discuss their escape plan. They were hoping that he would allow them, along with Taineri and his sarcophagus, to board his flying machine and leave the doomed city of Nijmauwrgen behind.

This was an opportunity to show the players the consequences of their actions. Julovern wasn't going to be easy to convince. The last time the party spoke with him was during session 2 at the party at Taineri Manor, during which Kvam suggested that Julovern help with the local rebellion effort. Julovern was disgusted and rebuked Kvam loudly to publicly distance himself from such behaviour.

Julovern recognised the two individuals that now stood at his shack door, though they were now dressed in Templar’s robes. Sensing trouble, he shut the door and asked them to leave. Faaya and Kvam were persistent and persuasive, however. Knowing that Julovern was primarily concerned with his own safety, they managed to convince him that the xenophobic and corrupt Black Sun would consider him a prime suspect for any unlawful behaviour. 

They considered leaving the city on the flying machine right away, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough fuel to leave right away. After some out-of-character discussion about how the players wanted to proceed, they decided to head back to the Babaselem with Julovern in tow and come up with a plan.

It was the players’ intention to leave the city forever. This would effectively mean the end of the adventure, but there were still some major locations and events that they hadn’t encountered yet. I discussed this with them, and we agreed to adjust course so that we could continue the adventure and see it through to the end.

Upon returning to the ketch, the team spoke with Taineri. He offered more leads on who to speak to regarding a potential resistance effort against the Black Sun. To save time, Julovern offered to head into the town the next morning and get fuel while the players went and followed up on the leads. They agreed and rested till morning.

Before heading out, Sfen offered his services as a strongman and general-purpose hireling. He was making little money as the captain of a beached boat and his curiosity was piqued at the talk of rebellion. For three gold a day, he would join the party and help them in whatever way he could. The party accepted his offer.

The One-Eyed Cat

The first location was a tavern near the docks in the east of the city. They had been told by a curious figure named Zvoorinius to wait until “the cat meows” and ask for “the grey”. It seemed the cat was a stuffed one, sitting above the bar. Speaking with some tavern-goers, they learned that it meows once every night at midnight. It was still early morning, so the party moved on to the next lead.

Doctor Dosteyoz’s Stall

Dosteyoz was another character they’d met at the party in session two. After a nod, a wink, and some not-so-subtle references to rebellion, she took the hint and brought Faaya and Kvam into an alley to discuss matters privately. It was here that she revealed herself to be an agent of the Black Sun. She mistook the party’s request to talk rebellion for a coded signal that they would be willing to help the Black Sun kidnap Alcantor. The party pretended to agree and left, suddenly wondering who else may be secret agents of the Black Sun.

I knew that I wanted Dosteyoz to be an agent of the Black Sun, but I didn’t know how that would be revealed in-game. Part of me wishes I had maintained her anonymity and let the party blabber to her. Oh well! I’ll try to think of something diabolical for her to do in the coming sessions. At least the party’s Anonymity die* went down a step after this interaction. The Black Sun are now firmly aware of their presence, if not fully suspicious of them just yet.

I wondered if the party might be swayed to the dark side by her promises of riches and occult power beyond their wildest imaginations. Unfortunately, the Black Sun are simply way too Evil™ for even this terrible twosome.

* This adventure makes use of Usage Die** to track two major concepts:

The Rise from the Deep (Ud12) is rolled once per day, representing the Black Sun’s dark ritual and ultimate goal. Since it starts at Ud12, it will take a long time before it depletes, so it hasn’t really come into play yet. It’s still on Ud12 after five days in-game. If it reaches d4, the guards lock the city gates and if it depletes entirely, 500 Deep Ones emerge from the sea and swarm the city.

Anonymity (Ud10) is rolled every time the players draw attention to themselves in public. As it depletes, the Black Sun becomes more aware of the players. At Ud4, it kicks into overdrive and the players are followed everywhere they go. When its depleted, the players will be attacked on sight.

** Mechanic from The Black Sword Hack – Ultimate Chaos Edition (p. 14) 

Bonifacio’s Shack

Finally, the players find someone who might be of some use. Bonifacio, a dog-shaver and tooth-puller who works in a tiny shack in the heart of Nijmauwrgen, has no love for the Black Sun. He is willing to help the party and reveals to them that he is secretly an assassin for hire.

After some discussion, the party learn that there are many ex-militia members who are unhappy with the current regime of the Black Sun and its Templars. Their morale is at a low ebb, however, due to Alcantor’s disappearance. The party persuade Bonifacio to bring together the leaders of the latent resistance network and meet them for a secret meeting in three nights’ time. Faaya reassures Bonifacio that Alcantor will be there with the legendary trident, Roodr.

Bonifacio isn’t detailed as being part of a resistance network in the adventure text, but it does say that he’s secretly an assassin and knows lots of gossip. Given he is already working outside the edges of the law, it made sense to me that he would be willing to help the resistance.

Thoughts

Some things came up during this session that I hadn’t anticipated. 

• The out-of-character moment where we discussed the adventure trajectory. I could have railroaded them somehow back into town, but I thought it would be quicker, simpler, and more transparent to just have an out-of-character conversation. It saved a lot of time and got the adventure back on track very quickly. Expectations were set and we moved on. Would do again!

• Hints and clues that seemed obvious to me are clearly not so to the players. I used the NPCs to remind them of the hunt for the trident and the cure to Alcantor’s Mnemophagia curse. 

• Players need good reasons to put their characters in risky situations. Vague suggestions of rewards aren’t really cutting it. Finding a trident for the sake of it is not that enticing, either. I am going to drop some hints about its magical powers and tie it to the strength of the resistance forces.

• NPCs the party can be invested in, positively or negatively. A pleasant surprise for me this session was that the players absolutely hated Doctor Dosteyoz. That’s cool, I want the players to care about the NPCs! It makes the world feel more real. I’ve been thinking of ways I can reinforce or subvert this. The intro to this post came out of that, and I might share it with the players in a future session. 

• I am going to keep a calendar. There are a lot of moving pieces going on in this city now. Outside of the party’s own plans, I have some things planned for the next few days. Three Templars are missing, and they were last stationed very close to the Babaselem. The Black Sun will be visiting soon…

   

    

Thanks for coming,

Feirsteax